Shepherd spent the last two years covering Oregon’s criminal justice system and far-right extremism in the Pacific Northwest for Willamette Week, an alt-weekly in Portland, Ore.

Her reporting revealed an undisclosed inmate death in the state women’s prison and spurred lawmakers to close a legal loophole that allowed people to get away with stealing cars.

Her work covering the far-right in Portland pushed prosecutors to re-open an investigation into an assault committed in broad daylight. She also published text messages that revealed a cozy relationship between a police lieutenant and local extremist leader, which led the mayor to order an independent investigation of the Portland Police Bureau.

Shepherdpreviously interned with BBC News, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She graduated from UCLA and earned a master’s in journalism from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism.